So in a few weeks, I'm relocating with my roommates from Cincinnati to Oklahoma City, specifically the southwestern part of that city.

The plan is to take I-75 to I-71 to I-65, eventually connecting to I-40 to I-240 to our new residence. Departure time is sometime between 12 noon and 3pm Eastern time the day after Christmas, with a targeted arrival sometime in the morning of 12/27.

Couple of questions:

1) Is there a reliably faster option? Would I-44 from St Louis into OKC result in enough time savings to justify tolls with a 26 foot moving truck, keeping in mind that we would arrive in St Louis around 7-8pm?

2) Depending on route, what would be a good intermediate target location to stop, should all drivers be too tired to continue? It is approximately a 16 hour drive (with necessary stops for gas and fuel) via I-65 > I-40 > I-240.

So in a few weeks, I'm relocating with my roommates from Cincinnati to Oklahoma City, specifically the southwestern part of that city.

The plan is to take I-75 to I-71 to I-65, eventually connecting to I-40 to I-240 to our new residence. Departure time is sometime between 12 noon and 3pm Eastern time the day after Christmas, with a targeted arrival sometime in the morning of 12/27.

Couple of questions:

1) Is there a reliably faster option? Would I-44 from St Louis into OKC result in enough time savings to justify tolls with a 26 foot moving truck, keeping in mind that we would arrive in St Louis around 7-8pm?

2) Depending on route, what would be a good intermediate target location to stop, should all drivers be too tired to continue? It is approximately a 16 hour drive (with necessary stops for gas and fuel) via I-65 > I-40 > I-240.

Any and all help is appreciated.

I've only driven I-44 once, but remember some fairly steep grades in central Missouri. Not sure how the truck would handle them.

If you're committed to the I-40 route, I'd think Jackson, Tenn., would be a good stopping point. Plenty of lodging options there.

I'd really consider taking the Kentucky parkways, US 51, I-155 and I-55 instead of going through Nashville. Most of that, though, stems from my dislike of I-40 west of Nashville. Traffic will certainly be lighter.

I can’t provide much guidance with your route, but I can offer some thoughts on driving a 26-foot moving truck—having just made a 1,000-mile move with one earlier this year.

First, have you already made a rental reservation for your truck? I’d definitely recommend against renting from U-Haul for a few reasons. To keep it short: aging, poorly maintained equipment; anemic gas-powered trucks; flaky “reservations” system. Do some searches along the lines of “uhaul maintenance lawsuit”, “uhaul complaints” and you’ll get an idea. Additionally, I’ve never found Uhaul’s prices to be competitive for long distances when fees and fuel costs are taken into account.

In terms of equipment and customer service, I’ve had much better experiences with Penske, Budget, and Enterprise. And particularly for a truck as large as 26 feet, I’d absolutely recommend renting a diesel-powered one.

As long as you keep to Interstates and other major routes with moderate grades, I wouldn’t worry too much about hills or road geometry. Earlier this year, I drove some long, steep grades on I-77 and I-81 with a 26-foot diesel-powered International loaded to within a few hundred pounds of its 26,000 lb. rating. And I was able to at least keep pace with the tractor trailers climbing those same grades.

Of course you have to remember that you’re not driving a car: Keep to the posted speed limit at a maximum, abide all advisory speeds, use a lower gear on steep downgrades, keep in the right lane even if it means going a bit slower than you’d prefer, etc. Patience will be perhaps your greatest asset.

I would stick to service facilities and hotels that are designed to accommodate large trucks and avoid having to back up or make any tight maneuvers. That should be fairly easy to do on any major route, but a look at some of the major truck stop chains (TA/Petro, Pilot/Flying J, Love’s) location finder tools might be a good resource to help plan the best route.

I can’t provide much guidance with your route, but I can offer some thoughts on driving a 26-foot moving truck—having just made a 1,000-mile move with one earlier this year.

First, have you already made a rental reservation for your truck? I’d definitely recommend against renting from U-Haul for a few reasons. To keep it short: aging, poorly maintained equipment; anemic gas-powered trucks; flaky “reservations” system. Do some searches along the lines of “uhaul maintenance lawsuit”, “uhaul complaints” and you’ll get an idea. Additionally, I’ve never found Uhaul’s prices to be competitive for long distances when fees and fuel costs are taken into account.

In terms of equipment and customer service, I’ve had much better experiences with Penske, Budget, and Enterprise. And particularly for a truck as large as 26 feet, I’d absolutely recommend renting a diesel-powered one.

As long as you keep to Interstates and other major routes with moderate grades, I wouldn’t worry too much about hills or road geometry. Earlier this year, I drove some long, steep grades on I-77 and I-81 with a 26-foot diesel-powered International loaded to within a few hundred pounds of its 26,000 lb. rating. And I was able to at least keep pace with the tractor trailers climbing those same grades.

Of course you have to remember that you’re not driving a car: Keep to the posted speed limit at a maximum, abide all advisory speeds, use a lower gear on steep downgrades, keep in the right lane even if it means going a bit slower than you’d prefer, etc. Patience will be perhaps your greatest asset.

I would stick to service facilities and hotels that are designed to accommodate large trucks and avoid having to back up or make any tight maneuvers. That should be fairly easy to do on any major route, but a look at some of the major truck stop chains (TA/Petro, Pilot/Flying J, Love’s) location finder tools might be a good resource to help plan the best route.

Good luck!

We already have the U-Haul reserved. One of my roommates (with previous commercial experience) is driving the moving truck. The other (and myself) will be in our RAV-4.

If you're passing through Tulsa, putting down the extra few bucks to take SH-364 (the Creek Turnpike) is worth it. I-44 through Tulsa is not as bad as it once was, but there is still an old section of pretty decent length that is really awkward to pass through, even more so with a large truck, I'd imagine.

If you decide to take the I-44 route, a viable option is I-44 to Big Cabin, US-69 to Checotah, and I-40 the rest of the way in. I believe this route is slightly longer, but you save on tolls and get to bypass Tulsa. US-69 is four lanes the whole way and is a fairly popular trucking corridor, so you should have no problems. Careful not to speed in the small towns, particularly Big Cabin.

Traffic in Oklahoma City is almost always good, so worrying about avoiding rush hour should be fairly low on your list of priorities. Traffic on the interstates rarely slows below about 25 mph, so you'll always at least be moving.

There is ongoing construction at the I-240/I-35 junction. You may want to avoid the area, if practical, by taking I-44 around the west side of town, depending on what direction you're approaching OKC from. Again, no real slowdowns, but ODOT likes making nerve-wracking work zones with narrow lanes and concrete walls right up along the edgelines.

Bring along one gallon of eye bleach per person. You'll need it when you see ODOT's attempts at signage.

Make a point to visit downtown after you get settled in. A walk along the Bricktown Canal is a good place to start. OKC's downtown has become really awesome in the last twenty years, and is on the verge of making even bigger strides with the construction of Scissortail Park and the new downtown convention center. In ten years it will be unrecognizable.

Learn your tornado precautions now. Find out if there's a shelter where you'll be staying. If not, identify a small, closeable, windowless room on the first floor you can take shelter in. In the center of the structure is ideal, but if not, you want something away from the south and west walls. If you're renting a second-floor apartment with no shelter available, make friends with your downstairs neighbors now so you can ask them to take you in in the event of a storm. For the love of God, don't try to run away from it in a car. Tornado sirens are generally tested Saturdays at noon (they are in Norman, at least, I seem to remember OKC follows the same schedule), so make a point to listen for them to see how well you can hear them. Get a battery-powered weather radio, and, ideally, some sort of television access to KWTV, KOCO, and KFOR. The cell network typically briefly goes down during tornado events due to high call volumes, so don't depend on it to be there to be your source of information. Oklahoma's peak severe weather season is from April to June, so you're arriving just in time for it. Keep in mind that freak tornadoes at other times of the year can happen too, though (one hit Goldsby in October, for instance).

If you want some pointers on places to see and do, or recommendations for certain types of businesses, drop in at http://okctalk.com and say hi. Oklahoma Citians are, without exception, eager to show off their city to anyone who shows the slightest bit of interest, and will be happy to recommend anything worth seeing.

Traffic in Oklahoma City is almost always good... Traffic on the interstates rarely slows below about 25 mph....

We obviously have different definitions of "good." 25 mph traffic on an interstate does not meet any definition of "good" in my book.

25 mph is really good for rush hour when compared to the Ryan, Stevenson, Ike, or Kennedy Expressways.

Good news though, if you hit really bad traffic, OKC’s streets rarely divert from a grid, so just go left or right, and continue for a block (about a mile), then continue going in the direction you were going before traffic.

Learn your tornado precautions now. Find out if there's a shelter where you'll be staying. If not, identify a small, closeable, windowless room on the first floor you can take shelter in. In the center of the structure is ideal, but if not, you want something away from the south and west walls. If you're renting a second-floor apartment with no shelter available, make friends with your downstairs neighbors now so you can ask them to take you in in the event of a storm. For the love of God, don't try to run away from it in a car. Tornado sirens are generally tested Saturdays at noon (they are in Norman, at least, I seem to remember OKC follows the same schedule), so make a point to listen for them to see how well you can hear them. Get a battery-powered weather radio, and, ideally, some sort of television access to KWTV, KOCO, and KFOR. The cell network typically briefly goes down during tornado events due to high call volumes, so don't depend on it to be there to be your source of information. Oklahoma's peak severe weather season is from April to June, so you're arriving just in time for it. Keep in mind that freak tornadoes at other times of the year can happen too, though (one hit Goldsby in October, for instance).

Believe it or not, the tornadoes are a large part of why we want to be there, to research them. We do know how to protect from them, but not where we will shelter just yet. That decision will be made upon seeing the layout of our apartment (it's on the first floor for accessibility reasons).

I will be dropping in on that website you gave me within the first couple days of arrival (which we moved up the move on seeing a potential issue with icy roads during our initial timeframe -- I now leave the Cincinnati area tomorrow).

Because of the mileage limit on the truck, one roommate went I-74 to I-465 to I-70 to I-44 to I-35, meeting up with the other roommate and myself in Rolla, MO. My route was I-71 to I-265 to I-64 to I-255 onto I-270 to I-44 and then as above. This got me all of the Indiana side of I-265. (As of last night, neither KY 841 nor IN 265 have been signed as I-265 between I-65 and I-71.) The highest gas price seen was $2.39 in Haubstadt, IN and the lowest is $1.99 in south OKC at SW 119th and Western.

By the way, Scott, I did hit Bricktown last Friday night and had a couple beers at Brickopolis Entertainment on the canal followed by a walk and a free boat ride on said canal. Really good beer (I had two Coop F-5 IPA's), solid fish and chips, great people -- and I can't pass up an opportunity to play some arcade games.

And to add to the tornado safety point, on seeing the layout, I quickly decided that my bathroom makes the best shelter being most interior to the building. Plus, the plumbing can be used to brace if need be. We are less than 3 blocks from the 2013 Moore path and dead center of the 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore path.

The highest gas price seen was $2.39 in Haubstadt, IN and the lowest is $1.99 in south OKC at SW 119th and Western.

No ridiculous $2.79-ish prices? It seems really unusual that all stations are within 40˘; there always seem to be a few stations that try to price gouge. In my area, if you travel for an hour, you will probably see at least one of these "price gouge" stations.

The highest gas price seen was $2.39 in Haubstadt, IN and the lowest is $1.99 in south OKC at SW 119th and Western.

No ridiculous $2.79-ish prices? It seems really unusual that all stations are within 40˘; there always seem to be a few stations that try to price gouge. In my area, if you travel for an hour, you will probably see at least one of these "price gouge" stations.

When my friend and I passed through Oklahoma twice going to and coming back from Memphis, it let us see how I-40 and I-35 were. The mention of the road construction brings back memories of a real snarl but that was it for any sort of bad memories in the Sooner State, which has extraordinarily friendly people. Hope you enjoy your time in OKC!

Rick

Logged

US 101 is THE backbone of the Pacific coast from Bandon OR to Willets CA. Industry, tourism and local traffic would be gone or severely crippled without it being in functioning condition in BOTH states.

Too late for the OP, but my rankings of moving truck rental companies are as follows:

(1) Penske(2) Budget(3) U-Haul

U-Haul's equipment is junky and I've had way too many experiences with showing up with a reservation and being told there wasn't a truck for me.

Also, if you're looking to save money without throwing out your back, I recommend renting a truck and hiring movers to load/unload it. Unfortunately, when we move out of our current house, we'll have accumulated too much stuff to do a move in a single trip using the largest rental moving truck available (which I believe is 26 feet).

Too late for the OP, but my rankings of moving truck rental companies are as follows:

(1) Penske(2) Budget(3) U-Haul

U-Haul's equipment is junky and I've had way too many experiences with showing up with a reservation and being told there wasn't a truck for me.

Also, if you're looking to save money without throwing out your back, I recommend renting a truck and hiring movers to load/unload it. Unfortunately, when we move out of our current house, we'll have accumulated too much stuff to do a move in a single trip using the largest rental moving truck available (which I believe is 26 feet).

Too late for the OP, but my rankings of moving truck rental companies are as follows:

(1) Penske(2) Budget(3) U-Haul

U-Haul's equipment is junky and I've had way too many experiences with showing up with a reservation and being told there wasn't a truck for me.

Also, if you're looking to save money without throwing out your back, I recommend renting a truck and hiring movers to load/unload it. Unfortunately, when we move out of our current house, we'll have accumulated too much stuff to do a move in a single trip using the largest rental moving truck available (which I believe is 26 feet).

Moving again soon, eh?

No, we just bought our place in April. But we miscalculated the size of the truck we needed for that move and had to make more than one trip, so the logistics of the next move have been on my mind.